T

he government is planning to train 5,000 prosecutors to curb embezzlement in the disbursement of the National Program from Community Empowerment (PNPM).

Deputy for Poverty Alleviation from the Coordinating People’s Welfare Ministry Sujana Royat said that the tightened security measures are necessary following corruption cases of PNPM programs in North Maluku and Southeast Sulawesi.

“The embezzlement was worth Rp 100 billion [US$ 11.7 million]. It could have alleviated poverty in one regency. We hope the newly trained prosecutors could monitor all regional programs for community empowerment,” he said Monday.

PNPM is packages of microcredit programs targeted to impoverished regions. The government has allocated Rp 13.14 trillion this year to be disbursed to 6,623 districts.

Sujana said that the embezzlement in South East Sulawesi had been organized, done by local officials, facilitators to those who dealt directly with the poor.

“The poor were deceived after signing a receipt to cash the money. They never accepted the money,” he said.

In North Maluku, local officials used the community empowerment funds to succeed a team for a local election in 2010.

“The coordinating ministry blocked the whole province from the community empowerment funds for a whole year. In the end of 2010, after restoration of local system, both North Maluku and South East Sulawesi accepted the empowerment funds again,” he added.

However, the government still suspended funds for the Rokan Hilir regency in Riau due to its refusal to deliver empowerment funds to the poor.

“It happened also in the Sula Islands in North Maluku, where the regent rejected participation in he program,” Sujana said.

According to him, North Sulawesi and East and West Nusa Tenggara are several regions in eastern Indonesia whose local governments fully understood the mission of MDGs and lent assistance by distributing empowerment funds to the poor.

Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister Agung Laksono said that the empowerment funds found obstacles to implementation in the regions because priority was still more focused on infrastructure, rather than on social welfare.

Corporate Forums for Community Development secretary general Iskandar Sembiring said that infrastructure was indeed still a priority for local government, because without infrastructure, programs on social welfare could not run well.

“In village sanitation, including clean water and public bathroom, facilities are still the main focus. Without this simple infrastructure, economic activities would not run well,” he said.

Sujana added that in addition to these infrastructure-based priorities, the categorisation of the poor was still unclear due to vague government data on poor individuals. Somehow, those who were not so poor could have rights to accept a portion of empowerment funds.

“Teachers or midwives, they could write proposals describing their situation and send them to local governments. They are literate and capable of writing beautifully describing their miserable condition,” Sujana said.

Therefore, starting from January 2012, the government would use new data, which is being collected through an ongoing survey taking place from July to September. In December, Vice President Boediono will release the data, which will likely include lists of poor individuals by names and addresses.

“The new data would cover 40 percent of the poorest individuals in Indonesia. Today, the data only covers 20 percent of the poorest individuals,” Sujana added.

As of today, data taken from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) showed that in March 2011, Indonesia has 30.02 million people living in poverty, a decrease from 31.2 million in March last year.

Poor individuals in villages had reduced from 19.93 million to 18.97 million, while those in cities had reduced from 11.1 million to 11.05 million.

The Agency also settled a new poverty limit at Rp 233,740 per month in March 2011. The limit increased 10.39 percent from Rp 211,726 per month in March 2010. (fem)